Album Review | Acidic Base Debuts With Purple Skies

We’re all familiar with stories of precocious kids reaching milestones at ages when you were still picking your nose. Few things make a person feel so average. The 12-year-old electronic producer behind Purple Skies is sure to elicit those same feelings.

Siddarth Goswami, based in Chicago, operates under the pseudonym, Acidic Base. The ambitious young fella has put together a collection of seven tracks, blurring the line between ambient, dance, EDM and more. Despite his age, Acidic Base has enough knowledge to craft head-turning chord progressions, modulate and harmonise seamlessly. Perhaps most impressive of all, he puts his creations through the production table like a pro.

A listen with headphones will show the detailed instrument separation, panning, reverb, compression, and more. It begs the question, how many people can even claim to have familiarity with these concepts at age 12, never mind applying them to original music? This alone makes Purple Skies a worthy listen.

The album opener, and title track, carries a mellow vibe, with a hushed beat and melodically-explorative lead line. Lush keys meander in and out of arpeggiation before trailing off, seemingly of their own accord. The verse is texturally rich, swarming with effects-heavy ornamentation, which lends an almost psychedelic quality.

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Following is the harder-hitting, ‘Halcyon’, with industrial beats and sharp pulses intermittently appearing to provide a shadowy overlay. With an improvised feel, the lead synth lines in the middle section create sweeping harmonic trails, aided by the rich delay effects that taper out.

Hypnotic and warm, ‘Blurred’ is classic EDM in all its buzzing, keys-drenched glory. Acidic Base mixes things up halfway with a left-of-field wave of distortion-heavy synth chords. The up-tempo, melodious hooks that power the track never let up and gently guide the listener to a blissful denouement in the final minute.

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Perhaps most ambitious is the 8-minute epic, ‘Omnidirectional Hyperjet’. Full of tension and release, drama, cliff-edge pauses, and driving danceability, this track is likely the most impressive of the set. Goswami left-turns into a retro bridge section as a temporary comedown, reminiscent of classic 8-bit tunes from 80s video games. As with all other sections of the tune, it’s a build-up of heavy energy before an explosion of positivity in which all voices unite in a truly addictive conclusion.

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Also of note is album closer, ‘Borealis’. This one drags at a half pace while pitch-whizzing synths swirl and collide from one bar to the next. The overarching vibe is one of plateaued energy lining up one last expression before the inevitable conclusion. Goswami creates some inspiring, beautiful walls of sound on this track – the back and forth keys dance around the ears. Mesmerising stuff, and all the more mind-blowing given the age of the creator.

Purple Skies is more than just an album produced by young talent – the quality is such that you could never guess Goswami’s age, given how professional it sounds. If this is what Acidic Base is capable of now, he is undoubtedly one to watch as his talent unfolds.

Barra Ó Súilleabháin is a science writer at Research2Reality and contributes to outlets such as The Media Editor and Button Masher Magazine. If he's not serenading his bedroom with his Spanish guitar, he can be found most evenings buried in his Nintendo with Flying Lotus as the soundtrack.

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